Natsume's Missing Eyebrows
by Serenity Ngo
Summary: Mikan has noticed something strange about Natsume. Well, actually, something strange about Natsume's face. What did she notice? I wrote this story with my best friend at her birthday party. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: __**This story was written by me and my best friend during her birthday party when we were reading the newest chapters of Gakuen Alice.**_

It was a dark and gloomy Sunday, which was strange because it was spring. Of course, this can only mean one thing. SPRING CLEANING.

All students were required to help out, participating in the tiring ordeal of keeping their classrooms clean without getting distracted. Narumi-sensei was there, seemingly helping the students keep on track, but his outfit was doing the exact opposite.

Natsume was cleaning, if you called standing around half-heartedly swinging a duster around in the recesses of a cabinet cleaning. The cabinet was as dusty as it was when he had begun, since all he had actually cleaned was a small corner on the middle shelf.

His attempts at cleaning attracted the attention of Mikan, who walked over to him with a curiously angry expression and stance.

"Natsume!"

He didn't even have to look up to know it was Mikan speaking. But, something in her tone suggested that she would not leave without an answer. Natsume slowly lifted his head up to face her and said with an annoyed expression, "What?"

Her mouth tightened into a straight line as she shot back, "You've been cleaning that same spot for the last two hours. Why don't you actually _try_ to do something?"

"I don't have to listen to you." Natsume's expression was even more annoyed than usual. He was not in the mood to trifle with Mikan today. He glared at her with venomous eyes, willing her to leave him alone.

A few feet away, Ruka shifted his eyes in Natsume's direction. Uh-oh. Natsume looked even more scarier than usual, and Mikan was there, most probably the cause of his increased irritation. Ruka knew that Natsume had been in a bad mood all day, and just wanted to be left alone. He had a bad feeling that something was going to happen. Something bad.

With the best intentions, Ruka slid over to the dusty cabinet and said cautiously, "What's up, you guys? At least look like you're cleaning. Narumi-sensei is looking this way."

Mikan smiled at Ruka's presence, but then her scowl returned when she looked back at Natsume. "Well, what if Narumi-sensei punishes the whole class just because _you're_ slacking off?"

"What's it to you?" Natsume smirked, and inched his face closer to hers. To his great surprise, instead of pushing him away, Mikan leaned even closer, her eyes squinting at his face. Natsume was startled, but of course he wouldn't show it on his face. Determined not to shrink away, he continued staring back at her.

Mikan raised her hand up, a slight smile on her face. Natsume was shocked yet again and wondered what she was doing. Was she about to…?

Ruka was staring at them, with a hot, fiery blush across his face, unable to tear his eyes away. Suddenly, a hand clapped onto his shoulder, causing him to jump.

He slowly turned his head around, and saw the face of the young genius inventor, Hotaru, next to his. He shivered and blushed again as she raised her lips to his ear. "Are you all right with this type of development?" she whispered in his ear.

Ruka stammered quietly back, "Wh-wh-what development?", determined not to show his true colors, as Hotaru would definitely find some way to use it to blackmail him.

"That one, right there." Hotaru bluntly pointed to Natsume and Mikan.

Trying to turn the attention away from himself, Ruka replied to Hotaru with a question of his own. "B-bu-but what do _you_ think of this?"

Hotaru held up a camera, a glint in her eye. "Business opportunity." Of course.

Turning their attention back to Natsume and Mikan, they saw Mikan begin to trace her own eyebrows, seeming to measure them. Then, she held up her hand to Natsume's eyebrow.

At her touch, something snapped inside Natsume. He quickly shoved her away from him and tried to regain his composure. "What the heck are you doing to my eyebrows?"

Mikan began smiling slyly, pointing at Natsume's eyebrows. Ruka realized what she had just now noticed, and behind Natsume's back, began gesturing wildly. _Don't say it! Don't say it!_ He thought fervently, hoping she would understand.

But Mikan did not see him. She was too busy staring at Natsume's eyebrows. "You know, Natsume," she said brightly. "You have really short eyebrows! I noticed just now!"

Ruka fell down in defeat. She had said it. The dreaded words.

Hotaru was slightly grinning, and walked to Mikan's side to survey Natsume's eyebrows for herself.

"Wow." she said in genuine surprise. "You're right. He really does have short eyebrows."

Natsume was frozen in shock. What? Since when did he have short eyebrows? His eyebrows were just the same as everyone else's. Weren't they?

Hotaru searched in her skirt pocket for something, and produced a black, pencil like thing. She slapped this item into Natsume's hands.

"Since you're now a freak of nature," she said emotionlessly, "I'll give this to you for free. I'm not always that generous, so use this gift to its full potential and get some normal eyebrows."

"Children! Are you cleaning, like you are supposed to be?" Narumi-sensei smiled. Ruka immediately grabbed a stray cloth on the floor, got back up, and feverishly began scrubbing the cabinet, not wanting to be subjected to Narumi's pheromones. Hotaru whipped out one of her cleaning inventions, pushed Ruka away from the cabinet, and turned her invention on. It was finished cleaning what Natsume had been trying to clean for two hours in fifteen seconds flat.

Narumi-sensei sauntered over just after Hotaru put away her invention and inspected the children's work. "Very nice." he complimented. "Keep up the good work!" Then, he left to supervise another group of people.

"Come on, Hotaru. Those people look like they need our help." Mikan hooked her arm through Hotaru's arm and led her away, leaving Natsume staring at the eyebrow pencil in his hands.


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's Note:__** I do NOT own Gakuen Alice and neither does my friend. For all of those Natsume lovers out there, please do not be insulted. And we apologize if he seems out of character, but wouldn't you act like this if someone pointed out something physically peculiar about you? Plus, thanks goes out to dominiqueanne for being the first to review. A very nice birthday present…**_

The next morning was sunnier. But for Natsume, the skies could've blinded him and he still would've been as gloomy as a rainy day.

As he lay in bed, his mind wandered around the remark Mikan had made. It bothered him more than it should. Then, Hotaru's comment that he was a freak of nature did not help at all. Although technically, they were all freaks of nature because of their Alices, but this thought did not come to Natsume at this time.

He rolled over on his side and picked up the eyebrow pencil. Natsume fingered the eyebrow pencil pondering what to do. Restless, he hopped out of bed and entered the bathroom, securing the lock behind him.

Checking to be sure no one could see him, Natsume scrutinized his eyebrows in the mirror. _My eyebrows aren't unnaturally short, are they?_ He stroked one of his eyebrows.

Uncapping the eyebrow pencil, Natsume hesitantly sketched a further arch from the end of each of his eyebrows. _Oh, crap. _Examining his work, Natsume noticed one eyebrow was too straight and the other too long and arched up too high. _Crap, crap, crap. _Seriously. A squiqqly unibrow would've looked better than his recent handiwork. Natsume wiped his eyebrows, trying to rub the pencil off. Nothing happened. _This is not looking good…_

Feeling slightly panicked now, Natsume turned on the faucet and attempted to wash it off. Leaning in to the mirror, it seemed to him that the eyebrow pencil lines seemed to grow darker, more definite. Great. Now he looked even worse than before. Trust Hotaru to give out high quality merchandise. Normally, this would be a good thing, but in Natsume's case, he found himself regretting ever accepting the stupid pencil thing in the first place.

Frowning, Natsume wondered how to get the eyebrow pencil off.

* * *

Hotaru woke up in her bed leisurely, inventing thoughts quickly filling her mind. All of a sudden, she slammed her fist into the palm of her open hand and exclaimed, "I forgot something!" Her expression turned questioning. "But what was it?"

She sifted through her memories of yesterday while brushing her teeth and jumping in the shower. Then, it hit her. "I forgot to give Natsume the eyebrow pencil remover…"

* * *

Natsume picked up his Alice limiter mask. He couldn't go to school looking like this. Sure, he could always ditch, but then he really, really needed to talk to Hotaru. Mainly about the eyebrow pencil. Then he could ditch.

As soon as Natsume entered the classroom, the cheerful banter immediately ceased. Through the eyeholes in his mask, he could see everyone's eyes on him. When he walked to his seat beside Ruka and Mikan, his classmates began whispering behind his back.

"I wonder what happened to Natsume…"

"Yeah, he's wearing that black cat mask again…"

"Natsume…" Ruka said worriedly as Natsume silently slid into the seat beside him.

"Don't worry, Ruka." Natsume automatically said.

"Pst! Hey, Natsume. Tell me what happened?" Mikan whispered.

Natsume scoffed irritably, "Why would I tell you?" _Are they on to me?_ Natsume was thinking. _Wait. There's that mind-reading boy here. I need to be careful._

"-boy here. I need to be careful." Koko finished. He grinned whole-heartedly at Natsume. Natsume glared at him through narrowed eyes and suddenly, Koko was running around, screaming, "I'm sorry!" while fanning out the fire on the seat of his pants.

"Ruka, where's Imai?" Natsume asked.

Ruka looked momentarily confused and shocked. "Um, she's…"

At that exact moment, Hotaru arrived, dragging in a whiny, messy Mikan who was crying, "Hotaru! Why didn't you wake me up earlier?"

"If you wish me to wake you up on time, I will require a fee." Hotaru said matter-of-factly. "I will consider half of your lunch everyday as the payment." Mikan looked at Hotaru with teary eyes.

Natsume swiftly rose from his seat and confronted Hotaru. "Imai. We need to talk." He transferred his glare to Mikan. "Alone."

Natsume thought he could detect a smirk in Mikan's demeanor as she said perkily, "Okay Hotaru. I'll let you and Natsume be…ALONE."

"Baka." Hotaru hit Mikan with her baka gun as Natsume toasted the ends of Mikan's hair. Mikan walked away slowly, looking back often with baleful glares of dejection.

"I know what you want." Hotaru said before Natsume could begin. Then, she smirked, pointed to herself and said while stroking her eyebrows, "But you can't have THESE."

"Don't act stupid, Imai." Natsume spat. Hotaru's smirk only deepened. "Did you consider this-" Natsume lowered the mask slightly so that Hotaru could see the upper half of his face. "when you gave me that…_thing?_"

"Pfft! Haha…" Hotaru covered her mouth hurriedly and turned around, trying to muffle her laughter. When she had regained enough control, she said coolly, "Who knew the infamous Hyuuga Natsume was so concerned with his looks, actually wearing his torture mask to cover his…" A barely controlled snort burst from Hotaru. "uneven eyebrows?"

"Just give me the remover, Imai!" Natsume growled, fire lighting up in his eyes.

"Fine, fine." Hotaru snorted, hand slipping into her pocket again. "Don't burn your skin off over it."

Natsume snatched the eyebrow pencil remover quickly from Hotaru's open hand. Glaring at her, he quickly ran out of the classroom.


	3. Chapter 3

Natsume, having acquired the eyebrow pencil remover, was too preoccupied with making a quick escape that he failed to notice Narumi-sensei entering the room. Thus, the inevitable happened.

_BAM _! Oof! The impact was more than enough to make Natsume hit the floor. In the process of falling, his hold on the circular container slipped. It rolled somewhat conveniently into Narumi-sensei's shoe.

"Natsume-kun, where's the fire?" Narumi-sensei laughed as he received a glare from Natsume. Natsume dusted himself off but remembered about the remover a moment too late.

"What's this?" Narumi-sensei picked up the small container and flipped it over to the other side to read the label.

Natsume's eyes widened in horror, although no one could notice it beneath the mask. _Thank god for the mask. _He thought. "That's mine!" He lunged for the eyebrow pencil remover and missed.

"Whoa! This is so unlike you Natsume," Narumi-sensei held the container out of the boy's reach. "Perhaps this little _thing_ may be the cause of your odd behavior." He smirked, elated with this chance to tease one of his exemplary students.

"Hand it over." Natsume demanded. If he glared any harder his eyes might actually burn holes. Whilst this event was occurring, the class watched in silence to this new side of Natsume they had never seen before. They made sure to keep a safe distance from Natsume in case he decided to use his Alice. Nobody wanted to be in the crossfire.

Narumi-sensei made a "tsk" sound. "That's not a nice way to ask for something. You're supposed to say please." Natsume just defiantly glowered in response.

"If you will not say please then you leave me no choice." Narumi-sensei tossed the remover into the air and caught it. "I'll just have to tell everyone that you use an eye-" A soft whisper, low enough that only Narumi-sensei could hear it, interrupted him.

"P-p-pl-" Natsume struggled to force the words out of his mouth. "Please…don't tell anyone." As much as Natsume hated to give in, it was that or face humiliation. He couldn't bear to watch the destruction of his cool, distant and aloof image that he had worked so hard to develop. Natsume turned his head away in shame from actually having to result to pleading.

Narumi-sensei, not really expecting Natsume to give in so quickly, was astounded and amazed. However he did not miss a beat and said, "See, was it so hard to say please?"

"I won't tell anyone." Narumi-sensei added with a wink as he returned the remover.

"However, I wouldn't use-" That was all Narumi-sensei could get out before Natsume zoomed out of the classroom. "that brand of product."

_Must find a place where no one can find me._ Running was too eye-catching, so Natsume tried to walk leisurely. Tried being the key word.

_The bathroom? _Natsume paused by the door. _No, too many people._ He dismissed the idea and continued to make his way down the hall. _A place where no one can interrupt me. A place not being watched. Somewhere private._ That's when the idea struck him. _Of course! The only place like that is my own bathroom. The exact same place where I first used that cursed eyebrow pencil._ Natsume decided he could take the risk and ran full speed towards his room.

He was now in the special stars building, and just when he thought he was almost there, something bad happened. Something _always_ had to happen in these types of situations.

One word. Persona.


End file.
